How much effort do I need to make to deal with creditors of my FILs Estate?

MuddyFunster

Sorry for the slightly glib headline, it's very hot and I've spent another 30 mins on the phone to another "Bereavement Team" who act like Debt Collectors.
My Father in Law passed with COVID back at the end of April. I'm sure I'm not alone in that at the moment. 
I'll try to cut this short, his Estate was always going to be insolvent, he owed tens of thousands in defaulted debt that I could find going through his things in his rented flat. I filed the notice in the Gazette today, I'm expecting tens of thousands more to arrive.
I wrote to all the creditors I could find, sent them a copy of the Death Cert and asked them to send a final balance, it's a bit of a pointless, 'going through the motions' thing, I'll only end up writing back to confirm the estate is insolvent but I understand it's a process that has to be completed.
A lot of them keep writing to me and calling me asking me to speak to them, when I do they want all kinds of info I don't have like account numbers etc, and rather than being helpful, they very coyly try to get me to settle debts from an insolvent estate, so insolvent that we're only likely to recover about £2000 of the £4000 funeral cost.

Do I actually have to call them and go through the whole thing over and over every time? As far as I'm concerned, I've informed them, given them the Death Cert, I don't feel obligated to do any more than that? 

NinjaTune

I'd go into broken record mode.  Every time they call just say "I have your details and will contact you when the Estate is finalised.  Goodbye" and put the phone down.  If they have provided all the info required to prove the debt then there's nothing further to discuss at this point.

hb2

As the estate is insolvent, the less you do the better. Tell creditors that no-one is administering the estate and leave it there.

Keep_pedalling

Really you should have simply written to them informing them that the estate is insolvent and that no one is administering the estate, but it’s a bit too late to do that now.

if you are sure that his assets will not cover his funeral costs then you need to write to all the creditors informing them that after a full audit of his assets there are insufficient to cover his funeral costs and that the net value of his estate is zero and therefore there will be no distribution to any creditors.

It is actually fortunate that there is nothing to distribute because that would be an absolute nightmare to sort out.

MuddyFunster

Keep_pedalling said:

Really you should have simply written to them informing them that the estate is insolvent and that no one is administering the estate, but it’s a bit too late to do that now.

if you are sure that his assets will not cover his funeral costs then you need to write to all the creditors informing them that after a full audit of his assets there are insufficient to cover his funeral costs and that the net value of his estate is zero and therefore there will be no distribution to any creditors.

It is actually fortunate that there is nothing to distribute because that would be an absolute nightmare to sort out.

Thanks, yeah me being me I dove straight into it, it's how I deal with grief  - keep busy.
I just hope they take 'no' for an answer. I don't want to have to receive chasing letters for months, or even years to come. 

Marcon

MuddyFunster said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Really you should have simply written to them informing them that the estate is insolvent and that no one is administering the estate, but it’s a bit too late to do that now.

if you are sure that his assets will not cover his funeral costs then you need to write to all the creditors informing them that after a full audit of his assets there are insufficient to cover his funeral costs and that the net value of his estate is zero and therefore there will be no distribution to any creditors.

It is actually fortunate that there is nothing to distribute because that would be an absolute nightmare to sort out.

Thanks, yeah me being me I dove straight into it, it's how I deal with grief  - keep busy.
I just hope they take 'no' for an answer. I don't want to have to receive chasing letters for months, or even years to come. 

If as you believe you won't even be able to recover the funeral costs, you simply tell creditors there will be no assets to distribute so the administration of the estate will never be completed; and you will not be entering into any further correspondence.

For anyone else reading this (OP, the comment isn't aimed at you), if an estate is insolvent, or looks very likely to be so, don't touch it with a bargepole, even if you are named in the will as an executor.

Flugelhorn

Sounds like you need a standard comment if they phone of "please contact me in writing" and if they write then send back a standard letter as above "after a full audit of his assets there are insufficient to cover his funeral costs and that the net value of his estate is zero and therefore there will be no distribution to any creditors"

getmore4less

With those sorts of debts the creditors may investigate.

No assets given away in the last few years?
No joint assets passed by survivorship?

MuddyFunster

getmore4less said:

With those sorts of debts the creditors may investigate.

No assets given away in the last few years?
No joint assets passed by survivorship?

No, none. My FIL, bless him, spent the last 20 years or so nearly penniless. He was a successful Business owner for years, went Bankrupt in the early 90s Recession and never recovered. He was a widower and owned nothing other than normal household stuff. 

He retired a few years ago, his own income was a small pension that deferred to him when my MIL passed about 10 years ago. His flat was rented, even his furniture belonged to his Landlord. We binned his clothes (charity shops being closed due to COVID). His only real asset was a Mercedes car, but it was a 300k mile ex-taxi that was barely road legal, I scrapped it for £140. 

The only way we managed to recover any sort of money (around £2000) was because he spent so much time in Hospital he didn't spend his last couple of pension / benefits payments on food etc.  

Total assets £2140, total funeral expenses just below £4000

getmore4less

In that case I would be giving them all the short message. 
if the landlord was decent I might engage in helping clear the flat but sounds like you may have done that.
that just leaves any further communications to the flat  if you can be bothered to process them.

Savvy_Sue

MuddyFunster said:

The only way we managed to recover any sort of money (around £2000) was because he spent so much time in Hospital he didn't spend his last couple of pension / benefits payments on food etc.  

Just a heads up: I believe with state pension and some benefits (I know Attendance Allowance) you have to advise the DWP if the recipient spends more than - I think - 6 weeks in hospital. I don't know where they fall in the scale of debts, but be prepared for an exchange of letters if he was overpaid ...